For the first time in a while Ajax felt his muscle strain under the weight on his back, the oddest part of the feeling was that the ground wasn’t sinking beneath his feet. As someone who studied architecture back on earth the foundation was an extremely important part of a building yet somehow it seemed the ground here wasn’t affected by extreme weight.

This came as a shocking surprise to him since he had seen large creatures and even warriors leave footprints when launching themselves at extreme power and more so because of how easy it was for him to shape the ground, if mildly, around him. The only explanation he could come up with was the same as for the sound barrier, somehow the presence of mana was ensuring that high level people wearing very highly mana infused items didn’t just sink straight into the ground.

The only issue he had with this was that it very obviously didn’t apply to him. The heavy gear of six high fifties spawn was further compressed into a pack that he carried on his back. To say that the changes to his center of gravity were big was an understatement. More than once he had found himself almost tripping when his foot hit a pothole, the presence of which he couldn’t understand due to the extreme rigidity of the road.

All that said he slowly continued as he made his way to his grandparents house. His effort was actually rewarded when he earned the Uncommon skill [Unnatural Balance]. Sweat was pouring down his back as he arrived at the store, with his mana being close to empty from the fight this trip squeezed his stamina to low levels as well.

“Mr Ajax” The guard at the door respectfully greeted him and opened the door as he approached.

Ajax was a bit caught off guard by the treatment but chose to acknowledge it with a nod as he entered. Once he entered he made a quick eye contact with Sebastian who was still behind the reception desk towards the back of the store. By the time he made it to the desk the man already brought out a rather short cloak that he offered to Ajax.

“What is this?” Ajax asked curiously.

“Something to help you carry your load.” Sebastian answered as he draped the cloak over the heavy backpack and Ajax felt the weight reduce drastically. “Master Elija and Mistress Aurora are here to see you, both were looking forward to your next visit.”

Ajax still wasn’t used to the forms of address that were used here in the capital. Back in Lessis, 'Sir’ and ‘Lady’ were the usual forms to address those of high standing, once he got to the capital he quickly learned that using them for people who had no noble title was frowned upon with the title of ‘Master’ and ‘Mistress’ being the replacement. The history that those titles came about due to the profitability of slave trade in the past didn’t help ease the transition for him either.

With his burden made lighter Ajax quickly made his way up the stairs where Sebastian led him to a different room from last time. Inside the room both Elija and Aurora were present with their head guard standing behind them with his eyes fixed on Ajax from the moment he entered the room. The simple fact that the guard wasn’t standing between them signified that they had looked into him and believed he meant them no harm.

“Ajax, welcome back.” His grandmother greeted him, his grandfather taking his usual stance of simply nodding in greeting, though his nod was much deeper and slower showing that he meant no disrespect by it. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Yes please.” Ajax said as he slowly took the seat opposite them and placed his pack on the table, it was obviously there for displaying the items he would be selling to them.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Sebastian was quick to provide Ajax with a choice between ale or wine. Ajax much preferred the ale so he went with that being quickly brought a pint.

“How was your delve?” Aurora asked, trying to introduce some familiarity while keeping the topic of the conversation business minded as Ajax had made clear at their last meeting.

“Profitable.” Ajax said with a small smile that turned into a grimace as he finished. “Though a little more risky than I’d have hoped.”

“I take it this wasn’t a crafting delve like your previous one.” Aurora continued, Ajax wasn’t surprised they had investigated even his last delve. “How did you find the Goldmine’s floors?”

“The small level difference was definitely a boon” Ajax said with a deep grin as he thought about the +7 he gained to all stats from the single delve. “Though the quick change in environments took some adjusting.”

Ajax followed his statement by starting to unload all of the armor and weapons on the table while also piling up his share of the manacores in a corner.

“These all belong to spawn from the seventh floor.” Aurora said as she expertly identified the items.

The head guard straighten up at that information as while the seventh floor wasn’t too much of a challenge for him anymore he had to keep his guard up, add that onto the danger that spawns presented it was quite the achievement.

“Yes, finding a camp whose weapons we could take back outside was quite a boon.” Ajax confirmed.

“They are all pretty standard pieces of equipment.” Aurora continued, Ajax had kept one of the one-handed axes for himself as it was well balanced for him but he was willing to sell all the rest. “The staffs are both standouts, this one is clearly a melee weapon with an enchantment to store impacts from incoming attacks and release them on use. The other staff is more impressive, it has a few mana replenishment runes alongside a few fire and earth amplifications.”

Ajax was glad about that, though he did feel a bit bad when he remembered the look the assassin had on his face when Ajax took the staff that was meant to be his once the deal for the egg was struck.

“The other big ticket item here is the gloves, they increase the speed that healing magic casted by the wearer works at, this should mean less blood loss and therefore less mana for healing. Total value for the lot is between four hundred and fifty and five hundred gold coins.” Aurora finished her inspection and looked to Elija.

“Current price for it all I’d say is four hundred and ninety. The novelty effect on the melee staff isn’t popular right now, people are looking for consistency, so it loses a bit of its value, the mage staff is always in high demand as for the healer gloves those are at a premium since with all this talk of curses speed is looked for by all healers right now. We’ll offer you four hundred and fifty for all of it.” Elija showed his merchant abilities by understanding the current market and offering Ajax a prince that was generous but still netted them a good profit.

“I do have to admit to being surprised you got so much out of one delve.” Elija continued. “This amount of loot is on the very low side for a delve but that is when counting the entire party, how do you have all of it?”

“These mana cores are from magma agesent creatures and come from the eighth floor.” Aurora said as she looked through the cores.

“We found a furnace salamander egg on the eighth floor and they gave me all of the weapons and armor to buy out my share of the egg.” Ajax calmly revealed.

“A furnace salamander egg!” Aurora was surprised and ecstatic at the news.

“Thank you for this.” Ajax’s grandfather said.

The information meant a lot for the merchants. While word that a bond egg had been retrieved by house Silvertongue had already gotten out following the display outside the dungeon, knowledge on the species of the bond could still be leveraged by merchants in the offering of gifts when hoping to reach a good deal.

“I do hope you were careful.” his grandfather continued, the words quickly bringing concern as the realization set in for Ajax’s grandmother.

“You’ve faced furnace salamanders!!!” Aurora exclaimed. “Are you alright? Do you need a healer?”

Her tone calmed down quickly as her merchant instinct quickly suppressed her protective grandmotherly ones.

“I’m fine.” Ajax confirmed “I’ll take the four fifty for the gear here if you’ll throw in ten more for the cores.”

The price for the cores was a little on the high end but with the new information Ajax had delivered his grandfather would have taken the deal even if it was offered by a stranger and offered an outstretched hand to Ajax.

“With this you’ve already repaid the full four hundred gold debt you had for the Alchemy equipment and are already walking out with sixty more coins,” he said. “Quite the windfall you’ve had this time around.”

Ajax shook his hand before accepting the bag of gold from Sebastian and then finishing off his ale. The ale was good but it was a little bitter for him having always preferred sweeter things he thought that a portion of his upcoming honey might be purposed into making honey mead.